Laramie - A man accused in the widely publicised kidnapping, robbery and `hate' murder of a gay college student was found guilty of first degree murder by a jury here yesterday. The seven-man, five-woman jury at Albany County Court, found Aaron James McKinney (22) guilty in the killing of Matthew Shepard in 1998.
McKinney now faces the death sentence, as the jury prepares to enter the sentencing stage of the case today.
In October, 1998, McKinney and Russel Henderson (21), lured the 21-year-old openly homosexual university student out of the bar where they had met, kidnapped, robbed and beat him with a heavy pistol, then left him to die strapped to a ranch fence. Shepard hung on the fence for 18 hours until two passing cyclists found him. He died five days later in a Colorado hospital.